A Tale of the Hidden Mist Ninja
by defying-destiny
Summary: This is a Naruto set story without Naruto!go figure. It takes place in the village hidden in the mist and is about one of the squads there. I'd really appreciate your reviews and if you could tell me to write more. This is my first fanfic, so I hope it
1. The Team

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, blah, blah, blah

Taisura Miyaki had just graduated from the ninja academy in her village. She was proud to wear the headband of the village hidden in the mist, it was her home and it made her feel more complete. Taisura was the last descendant of the powerful Miyaki clan who were famous for their Kekai Genkai which nobody outside of the clan had never seen, and lived.

That morning Taisura quickly got changed into her clothes, a sleeveless white sweater that ended just above her waist with an emerald green tank top showing from just above her waist down to where her short white skirt that was open at the sides from the hips down, under which she wore emerald green leggings. She displayed her headband around her neck instead of her forehead and she wore tape around her arms, starting from her elbows down to her knuckles, and her mouth starting from under her nose and down to the top of her neck where she tied it off in a neat knot. Her preference for shoes were wooden ones and she wore her hair in a long braid that extended above her waist and she kept fastened with a clip that was in the shape of a cherry blossom (the symbol of her clan) which was also displayed on her skirt.

The clock in Taisura's room struck seven o' clock indicating that it was time for her to get down to the ninja academy, today they were assigning teams and she was anxious to see who was in her team. She preferred to work independently, but they wouldn't let her do that since she was only a Genin. Quickly Taisura grabbed the book she was currently reading, an apple, her flute, and the hip pack of kunai knives lying on the table which she quickly strapped on. She decided to leave her scythe behind because it would only be dead weight at this time, she would wait until the real fights to begin before she ever used it. It was her mother's and the only thing she had left of her parents, so she would honor them by only using it when it was necessary. The clock struck seven o' one, it was time to go.

Kito Hyotio settled down next to his friend Miotu Kaitai at a table at the ninja academy. Today was the day they assigned teams and they were both anxious to be in the same team. In fact everybody in the room seemed a bit anxious. Many of the other newly appointed Genin shuffled around in their seats worrying about who they would have assigned in their team. The door opened quietly and Kito quickly glanced over to see who was coming in. It was only Taisura though. Kito didn't know how she had graduated from the ninja academy, she didn't seem like a great fighter even though she was the only member left of the famed Miyaki clan. Nobody knew much about her except that she was an orphan and that her parents died when she was very young. Kito watched as she quietly sat down at the only empty table and took out her book. That was another thing, she was always reading.

"Hi Kito!" exclaimed a very excited voice behind him.

"Ugh…" Kito sighed, slowly he turned around to see Itana sitting directly behind him and smiling hugely at him. He hated being the most popular guy in the academy, every single girl always all over him, trying to get a date."Hi Itana" Kito replied politely. Miotu glanced over at Kito, he knew that Kito was just too polite not to reply to anyone, but that did him no favors.

Just then the door opened at the back of the class and the ninja academy sensei walked in the room.

"Today we will be assigning your teams," spoke Saikei sensei ", you will each be assigned to a different three-man squad and each squad will have their own sensei to teach them the skills they need to become Chunin ninja. Any questions?" After a brief silence he continued. "These will be your teams:" Saikei started reading off the list "Team number six: Kito Hyotio," Kito perked up at the sound of his name "Miotu Kaitai," Miotu gave Kito a huge grin ", and Taisura Miyaki" Taisura looked up from her book at the sound of her name, she glanced over at her other teammates (no emotion showing in her eyes) and then continued reading. "Those will be your teams until you become Chunin ninja," Saikei sensei "have a nice lunch." He smiled and exited the room.

Kito was in a state of shock, he did not want to be on Taisura's team, she would only hold him back from becoming a stronger ninja. _This only ever happens to me,_ Kito thought.

"Come on Kito it's not that bad," Miotu said confidently ", at least we're on the same team. And look at the bright side, at least she didn't come over to us and automatically make herself the leader."

Kito looked up from the table to see that Miotu was right; Taisura had simply just walked out to go eat her lunch. "Thanks Miotu," Kito replied thankfully ", hey, just to be nice why don't we see if we can find her and try and talk to her. Maybe she's not such a bad person." Kito ran out of the room with Miotu following close behind.

The two boys managed to catch Taisura heading towards the park. She made her way quickly, walking with long strides. Miotu and Kito could barely keep up with her. Suddenly Taisura headed into the trees. When they got to that point in the path they looked into the trees, but Taisura was nowhere to be seen.

Taisura looked down at the two boys with disgust. They had been following her! Out of the cornor of her eye she had seen Kito's open jacket flying out behind him.

'Kito and Miotu' she thought. She looked down from her perch at them again. Kito was from the Hyotio clan. Not only that, he was from the head house, pretty much royalty. He had shoulder length, jet black hair which he seperated to two front strands with wide metal rings. His new headband was tied traditionally around his forehead and under his hair. The red jacket he wore he left open to reaveal a black tanktop with the emblem of his clan printed on it in red (a pheonix). He wore black armwarmers and beige pants that ended at the knee, and as a precaution two thigh packs of kunai (one on each thigh). On his back he carried four identical shurikan that had belonged to his grandfather before him.

Miotu was a bit different from his best friend though. He was not from any clan and lived with his family in the village. His hair was light brown and he kept it in a ponytail on his head. He wore a dark green vest and a fishnet, shortsleeve shirt underneath. He wore black, fingerless gloves with protective metal backs and his headband around his left arm. His pants were black and knee length with inumerable pockets, so nobody ever knew what was inside of them.

Suddenly there was a rustling in the bushes where Kito was standing. Instinctively he reached for a kunai, but it was only a squirell crossing their path.

"Come on Kito," Miotu sighed ", she's obviously given us the slip. Let's go eat lunch."

Kito watched the oddly, very light brown squirell climb up a nearby tree. "I don't know Miotu. There's something odd about that squirell."

"What? You don't think she could've used a transformation jutsu to turn into an animal?" Miotu questioned. "Come on Kito. That jutsu takes up too much chakra."

From her new perch Taisura drew a kunai knife. 'I'll show them what I'm able to do. Can't use a transformation jutsu. Ha! They don't know the half of it.' She threw the kunai knife, letting it go past Kito's nose and hitting the tree he was standing by.

"What was that?" Miotu was surprised. Calmly Kito went over to the tree and pulled out the weapon that had almost hit him.

"It's a kunai knife. It almost hit me too."

"Almost is the key word" Taisura jumped gracefully down from her perch, her very light brown braid flowing behind her.

"How did you get over there if we saw you come over here?" Miotu questioned, exasperated.

"Yes tell us Taisura" Kito said to her.

"That is only for me to know." Taisura replied. She then walked up to Kito and too the kunai from him. "Thanks for getting this out of the tree for me."

"What are you talking about?" Kito responded loudly, all calmness had faded. "You almost hit me with a kunai knife!"

"Almost." Taisura took out her apple and unwrapped some of the tape from around her mouth to eat. Quietly she left her two team mates to ponder over her vaguely rude actions and headed back towards the ninja academy.

"We might as well get back Kito," Miotu finally said ",we can't be late to meet our sensei."

"Something about that girl bothers me," Kito replied, heading for the academy ", I don't think she was being rude, just using it as a mask. There's something more to her. I mean how else could she pull off transforming into that squirell."

Miotu didn't reply, he just stared blankly at his friend's confusion. It was very unlike Kito to get so worked up about stuff like that. In the distance the bell to the ninja academy rang, it was time for the Genin to meet their sensei.


	2. Sutoru sensei

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and all relating characters

Kito and Miotu made their way back to the ninja academy.

"After that I don't even want to think about having to be on a team with her!" Miotu exclaimed. "What's her problem anyway? We didn't even do anything to her."

"I don't know," Kito replied thoughtfully ", it just seems to me as though that was all an act. There seems to be more to her, but she doesn't want anyone to find out."

"What makes you think that Kito? She seemed pretty angry that we followed her in the first place, that sounds pretty straightforward to me."

"It's just that when I looked her in the eye… her eyes weren't cold Miotu. You'd think a person that acts like that would have cold eyes, but she didn't. Hers were soulful and warm. There's another part of her that she seems to hide, I just can't figure it out."

Miotu put his hands behind his head and looked over at his best friend. It was unlike Kito to be confused; usually he was the one that Miotu looked toward for all the answers. It unnerved him a bit to see Kito like that.

As soon as Miotu and Kito stepped over the threshold into the classroom the bell rang. Seikei sensei was standing at the front over the room surrounded by three Jounin ninja with a list in his hand.

"All right," Seikei said as soon as they were all settled ", now it's time for you to meet your new sensei. One of these three Jounin will train you and your teammates to become better ninja. They will also train you for the Chunin exam. This will be the first year in many where we will have Genin from the village hidden in the mist going to the Chunin exam in Konoha, so I want you all to give your all to training for the next few months." Seikei sensei looked around the room, satisfied with the eager looks on the faces of the Genin he continued. "Now for your sensei. Team five: Heito Hitoramu. Team six: Sutoru Yiochu…"

Taisura glanced over at her sensei. He seemed okay, nothing really special though. 'How can I benefit from this guy, he doesn't seem very challenging.' Taisura thought. 'He's really young for a Jounin anyway, practically new. How will he know how to train us?"

"He's really young for a Jounin isn't he?" Miotu whispered to Kito.

"Yeah he's only about twenty at least." Kito replied "But, as long as he trains us right I don't really care."

"Now get acquainted with your sensei, tomorrow you start training" Seikei sensei finished.

The other Genin stood up and left with their sensei.

When Miotu stood up Sutoru put up his hand to stop him. "Here's a fine place to get acquainted." Slowly Miotu sat back down.

Sutoru sensei had short, light blonde hair and dark violet eyes, a common trait of the Yiochu clan. He was wearing dark brown, knee-length shorts and a white tank top with a black jacket over it. The tank top had a black raven symbol on it, his clan emblem. Tape was wrapped around his hands down to his knuckles and he wore his headband around his neck. He carried a slim sword in a sheath slung across his back.

At the moment Sutoru's hands were in his pockets and he was looking into the faces of each of his new pupils. The first thing he noticed was that there was a girl on his team, which was rare for the village hidden in the mist to have many female ninja. He also noticed that the girl had a patient, yet bored look on her face, like she just wanted to get this part of the training over with. Next he looked at the two boys that were in his team. They seemed to have known each other for a very long time, and it looked as though as they weren't necessarily happy with their teammate.

"As you already obviously know, my name is Sutoru Yiochu and your new sensei for the time being." The expressions on the Genin's faces hadn't changed. "Now that you know my name I want to know yours. Also tell me what you want to accomplish from becoming ninja."

"Well…" started the boy with the ponytail "my name is Miotu Kaitai. And I want to be able to control my chakra better."

"My name is Kito Hyotio," said the other boy more confidently now ", and I want to learn as many ninjutsu and genjutsu as I can."

"Taisura Miyaki is my name." the girl said in a slightly muffled voice under the tape she wore. "I want to accomplish become strong as a ninja."

"Okay good. Tomorrow meet me by the monument on the edge of the village. From there we'll begin training." Sutoru began to leave the room. "Oh, and one more thing, I suggest wearing something warm. Good day." With that Sutoru waved and left.

Silently the three Genin stood up and made their ways home.

"I wonder what he meant by that whole 'I suggest wearing something warm comment', it seems kinda odd to me." Kito said exasperated.

"It sounds suspicious to me," Taisura replied ", but I think we better do it. He has something challenging planned for us, I just know it."

Kito and Miotu looked over at Taisura. There was a thoughtful look in her bright green eyes. Quietly they each made their way towards their homes.

That night Taisura watched from her bedroom window as Sutoru sensei made his way to the forest. 'I knew it' she thought happily. Contently she settled down to sleep with her cat, Midnight, purring contently at her feet.


	3. Training Begins

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any relating titles, characters, or logos, but this story is mine and my creation alone.

Taisura made her way to the meeting place Sutoru sensei had described. As he had suggested she had dressed warmly in light green shorts that were knee length, a long sleeve fishnet shirt, and a hooded sweater with three-quarter length sleeves. When she reached the edge of town she stopped in front of the memorial. A few years ago, a couple years after she had been born a war had occurred. Those ninja that had Kekai Genkai were forced to fight in the war because of their special powers. Unfortunately many of the ninja died, including her parents. After the war those that carried the Kekai Genkai were feared and the ninja villages were shunned by the rest of society. Taisura had been raised by an aunt until she was eight years old. Her aunt had told her never to use her Kekai Genkai outside of the village unless it was absolutely necessary. Then her aunt died on an A rank mission to be a bodyguard for an ambassador for the hidden stone village, and Taisura was left to fend for herself.

Sadly Taisura knelt in front of the memorial and gazed at the names written there. After a couple seconds of searching she found the names of her parents carved in the stone. At this point the letters inscribed there were very familiar to her, before she was enrolled at the ninja academy she came here everyday with flowers to say a short prayer for her parents. She wanted to get to know them better, but now that couldn't be helped. Sighing, Taisura stood, but not before placing the lily she had brought down on the cold stone and reading her parents' names again: Mitoysu Miyaki and Itiraina Miyaki.

The loner that she was, Taisura sat herself down on one of the lower branches of the nearest tree, took out her book and waited for Kito and Miotu to arrive.

As usual Kito and Miotu walked together down to the edge of town. It was early morning so children that had just woken up were sitting down at the edge of the waterways lining the sidewalks making paper boats that they would later race. The houses kept getting scarcer as the two boys walked on though, the town was still being rebuilt after it had been destroyed by the war. The construction was loud, hammers hitting nails into boards, saws hacking away at the wood, and of course the machinery that had never really been to the ninja's taste.

Kito (after much debate) had decided to take Sutoru sensei's advice to dress warmly. He didn't know enough about the guy yet to know what kind of tricks he was going to pull. He kept his normal jacket and shirt, but had decided to wear tape under his shorts to keep his legs warm. Today he had decided against bringing his large shurikan though, this was a training exercise, Sutoru sensei wouldn't put them into any real danger, yet.

Miotu on the other hand hadn't decided to dress warmly. He thought his clothes were good enough. 'Besides' he had told him self 'he's a young Jounin, how tough could his training actually be?'. Miotu had no respect for ninja that were older than him. He thought they were all just bullies always picking on the weaker, younger ninja to make their lives easier. His older brother had always pushed him around when they were younger. That is, until Miotu decided to carry a kunai pack with him all the time incase Hiakiten decided to pull an ambush when he least expected it (which had caused a scene in town one day).

Miotu only respected people who respected him.

The boys finally came upon the war memorial and sat down to wait.

"What do you think Sutoru sensei has planned for us today?" Kito thought aloud.

"Truthfully I don't care," Miotu replied smugly ", the guy seems like a pushover."

"Is it because of your brother?" Kito asked. "Sutoru does kind of look like him…"

"Yeah he does, but he's not. My brother was weak and died because of it, at least I hope that this guy is able to teach us something, instead of treat us like crap then work us to death."

"He doesn't seem like that kind of person, I can tell." Kito was concerned. He knew that Miotu had hated his brother, but not to the point of hating anyone that looked remotely like him. Kito was usually the one to pass quick judgment with strong feelings on a person, not Miotu.

"You guys don't have any respect for the dead do you?" asked a voice from above.

The boys quickly looked up and saw Taisura looking down at them from one of the lower branches of the tree.

'Then there is Taisura,' Kito thought ', she usually passes quicker judgment than me. And she's pretty scary.'

"You two should know better than to sit on the memorial, show some respect." Taisura said, jumping lightly down from the branch.

"Oh come on Taisura, it's only a rock" Miotu replied.

"That's because your parents' names aren't written on it." Taisura said approaching him menacingly.

"Oh, right…" Miotu said sheepishly.

Quickly they stood up and made a quick apology to Taisura.

"Don't apologize to me" she said rubbing her forehead in frustration ", you should apologize to the people who gave up their lives to keep this country safe."

Embarrassed the boys turned around and murmured a quick apology to the people whose names were inscribed on the dark blue stone.

"So I see you guys came early" said a voice in the direction of the forest.

All three of the Genin turned around to see Sutoru sensei perched upon one of the tall boulders that were set around the lake. Miotu looked shocked, as if he didn't think Sutoru sensei was capable of such silent movement. Taisura (as always) looked as if nothing at all was on her mind; she was calm and closed to the world around her. Kito looked somewhat excited over his usually blunt attitude, he was going to learn from this sensei and take all of it to heart.

"Good," Sutoru spoke when none of his three pupils had anything to say in return ", now we'll start with the training. Of course you do know that because our village is relatively small only three teams of ninja will be officially chosen to become Genin right?" Sutoru smiled and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"No, we didn't" Taisura replied coldly. "Why is someone only telling us now? If someone had told us sooner we would've been more prepared to work to our full extent."

"That's the challenge," Sutoru responded ", a ninja must always be prepared for an unexpected circumstance to occur. You will never know beforehand what's in store for you on a mission."

He disappeared from his perch and was then behind his pupils. All three turned around to meet his gaze. Only to see that he wasn't facing them, but the memorial. Silently he bowed and stayed in that position for a few seconds before straightening up and turning around to see the surprised looks on the Genin's faces.

"Well, I guess it's a good a time as ever to start training. Follow me!" Sutoru walked past his students and led the way to where their training would start.

They ended up at the network of caves that were at the far reaches of the village. All of the ninja knew that the caves were confusing and hard to get through without get lost in any way.

"This is where we'll start our training." Sutoru said, finally turning. "In this network of caves I have hidden three items. One item per person. Each item is different and will only really mean something to that person. Your job is to find that item, before sunfall. If you fail to find your item by sunfall you will fail and you will not be chosen to be on one of the three teams. Got it?" The three, young, eager ninja nodded. "Then start."

In a flash the three Genin ran towards the caves. Sutoru watched with a bit of smugness. 'Of course,' he thought 'I did hide each item where that person wouldn't think of looking, but the others would. What they don't realize is that despite the seemingly singularity of the task it actually takes a team effort to accomplish. Hopefully they'll realize that by sunfall.' Quietly he sat down on the long, mist covered grass in front of the monument and settled down to wait.

Kito decided that his best bet to finding his object quickly would be to contact Miotu in case they found each others' items. Ever since Kito had gotten his hands on a scroll from his fathers' study the two boys had practiced how to hone onto each others chakra. That way they could contact each other mentally and without a lot of effort.

Calmly Kito sat on the cold cave floor and assumed a meditative stance. Then he began to seek out all of the sources of chakra in the cave network, searching out for the chakra that felt somewhat rebellious and averagely strong. Suddenly, he felt a chakra that seemed calm, vengeful, and powerful. It felt strange to him, but it almost felt familiar at the same time and it seemed like he could contact its source. The feeling of the chakra made him take the initiative to contact the source, but before he could concentrate on it someone contacted him first.

_Kito, you're never going to get out of this cave if you sit around like that you know. You know that you can contact a person mentally and still move right?_

_Well, maybe I need to concentrate first, and how did you know how to contact me?_

_I don't read all of those books for nothing of course. Now get up, you can hold the contact and walk at the same time, you've already wasted thirty minutes of time. I've already passed you in the cave and you're right near the front still._

_How did you pass me? I should've been able to feel your chakra when you passed me._

_Not if I know how to block it. The only reason you were able to hone in on my chakra is because I was trying to contact you first. Now get up. Walk, and try to contact Miotu. For some reason I can contact you but not him. I think it's the way our spirits line up. I read something about that, but I wasn't so sure what it meant at the time._

_Ummm… sure, yeah. Whatever._

Kito opened his eyes, stood up, and started making his way into the network of caves. He always kept his senses open for Miotu's chakra, but for some reason every time he tried to contact the source, a mental wall came up and blocked him.

_Taisura, _Kito actually found her chakra fairly easy this time, _I can feel Miotu's chakra, but I think he's blocking me. It's probably because of Sutoru sensei. He looks a lot like Miotu's jerk brother, and I don't think Miotu appreciates this. He probably wants to prove that he can do this by himself._

_Then he's an ignorant idiot. If he wants a chance to even survive this he needs to talk to someone. Probably you because I can feel his chakra, but I can't hone in to the source. I can probably catch up to him, he's been running this whole time through the cave, but I think he slowed down at the point where it suddenly gets darker._

_Okay then, if you find him tell me. How are you getting through this dark part anyway?_

_I have my ways._

The connection was broken. Kito could see that he was getting to the darker part of the cave so he slowed down a bit to think. This would most likely be the part where Sutoru sensei hid the objects. He quickly made a mental list of the jutsu he had learned back at the academy, but none came to mind that would help getting through this part of the cave any easier.

Just then a bat flew over his head with loud beating of wings. He watched it fly through into the dark with assuredness, but before it was enveloped in the darkness he noticed that the color of the bat was a very light brown and it reminded him of the squirrel he had seen in the park just the other day. Of course, that day had been unusually clear with no mist covering the ground, so he hadn't seen squirrels that clearly before. Then again, he had seen bats flying around the village before and they had always seemed a dark brown or black. Something odd was going on here; he always saw animals of this color when Taisura was around. Once before in the village he had seen Taisura's cat roaming around with a stray that was very light brown. Suddenly, when Kito had rounded the next corner Taisura was sitting on a bench, holding Midnight and the other cat wasn't in sight.

"Too bad I can't do a transformation jutsu and maneuver through this cave as quickly as _she_ can." He said out loud.

"Well maybe I don't use a transformation jutsu to get through this cave, ever thought of that?"

Kito looked to his left and was surprised to see a turn there into one of the many networks of the cave. Taisura stepped out of the darkness and Kito noticed a slight glow coming from her fingertips.

"How did you do that?" Kito asked her, his mouth slightly agape.

"Simple," she answered ", there's water in that passage over there." She pointed behind her. "I trapped a bit of my chakra into some of the water using the water prison jutsu to make it glow. Kind of like a makeshift candle, without the fire." She made all of this seem so obvious, but somehow Kito never would've thought of it. "Now come on, this is a bit of a team effort so you do the same thing with your chakra and I'll go on ahead. If we find an item we'll contact each other. Got it?"

"Got it." Kito replied more confidently than he felt. Silently he walked down the passage to make his own candle.

Taisura waited until Kito was out of sight and dropped her water prison jutsu. She knew that he would have enough chakra to pull it off and keep the jutsu going so she figured there was no point in leading him through the cave to use up her own chakra when she could get through much more easily. For a moment she held the image of a fruit bat in her mind and then did three hand signs in quick succession.

Making her way through the cave as a bat Taisura used her sonar to figure out all the twists and turns so she wouldn't crash into the hard stone. She began to recognize the vibration patterns for the rock the cave was made out of and started to feel for different vibrations. As she made a turn to the right a new wave pattern suddenly came up out of the original. Deciding that it was close enough, Taisura turned back into a human and made another chakra candle from some of the water that was pooling on the cave floor. She went towards the direction where she had felt the different vibrations and discovered a small alcove tucked away in the corner of the cave. Holding her candle inside of it she discovered an intricately carved wooden tree made out of ash wood as far as she could tell.

_Kito _it only took a couple seconds for her to find his chakra_ I found one of the items. _

_Yeah, what is it? _He replied.

_It's a carving of a tree; I think it's made out of ash wood._

_Oh…_

_What now?_

_It's not my item. Ever since me and Miotu were kids we would hide secret messages that we didn't want anybody else to know about in this certain ash tree. It had been all Miotu's idea, after all the ash is his favorite tree._

_Then how do you propose we get it to him?_

_Well, if we can sense his chakra we might be able to pinpoint his exact location; from there we could find him. I think I'd better do it though, he wouldn't like it too well if you gave it to him._

_Yeah, I know that I'm not exactly the most social person. Okay then, stay where you are, I'll come find you and give you the item. _

_That's fine with me._

Taisura was surprised that Kito was able to put a plan like that together. She hadn't really though that he could've been capable of it. To her both Kito and Miotu alike seemed like complete idiots that were entirely ignorant about jutsu and chakra use and how to formulate plans in important situations. Apparently she had been wrong about Kito, but less could be said without Miotu. He hadn't even realized yet that Sutoru sensei was tricking them into finding each other's items based on their skill levels.

Gripping the carving in one hand and keeping her chakra candle on the other hand high above her head Taisura made her way back through the cave to find Kito.

Miotu made his way practically blind through the cave. He had blocked off his mind so that Kito couldn't contact him, if he was going to finish this he was going to do it himself. Still, he hadn't yet thought of a way to make it easier for him to see and the farther back he was in the cave the darker it was. Of course the caves were in the side of a cliff, so the only possible way for a light shaft to come through was if there was a sharp incline that brought him nearer to the top of the steep rock face, which hadn't happened yet.

After about an hour of stumbling along blindly Miotu decided to take a short rest. He was tired of walking and had already walked straight into a wall a couple of times. Then he heard a noise.

Slowly Miotu drew a kunai knife from his thigh pocket and waited for whatever he had heard to approach him. He tried to make the movement as small as possible so as not to attract any unneeded attention.

"Miotu?" he heard a voice that echoed a bit around the stone walls. "Is that you?"

Miotu then saw a light that belonged to the voice and he tightened his grip on the kunai. Suddenly Kito's face swam into view, he was holding a strange lamp on his finger.

"Kito?" Miotu slipped his kunai back into the holder. "Geez you scared me there for a minute. How did you find me? And, what's with the weird lamp?"

"Well… I kind of heard you stumbling around in the dark, and this is for you. It's your item. And I bumped into Taisura and she taught me how to make this makeshift torch." Kito seemed kind of nervous as he spoke and he rubbed his head a bit sheepishly.

"Oh, well thanks… I guess. I was hoping that I'd be able to do this on my own, but I guess not." Miotu stared down at his feet.

"We still need your help though!" Kito said brightening up. "You see the way Sutoru sensei hid the items he put them in places that would only look interesting to certain people, making this more of a team effort. So we need you to find our items!"

Miotu gave his famous smile to Kito. "Well then, let's start. But, first you have to teach me how to make one of those lamps!"


End file.
